It’s been a while since my last update, but as I’m going through a bit of a Metal phase right now (thanks to Banger TV bringing back Lock Horns) I figured I would come back and post and largely thank you guys for opening the doors to a world of music which I absolutely enjoy now. I would never call myself a metal head, but I do appreciate the genre and have made my own way into liking stuff.
So let’s see, let’s start with who I still like years later. I listen to Death (particularly the albums Human and Symbolic) all the time. Like, very very regularly. I also still listen to a ton of Bolt Thrower and Carcass. I think my Black Metal phase sort of has passed. I still listen to whatever Panopticon is doing but other new pure Black Metal I sort of bypass. Old school Black Metal is basically just Immortal (who are awesome) though I think I like Abbath solo even better. I have pretty recently discovered Black N Roll which might be what I wanted Black Metal to be all along. Hellripper is fantastic, for example.
Lots of super gutteral death metal still strikes me as goofy. I really want to like Gate Creeper but their lead singer is just too goofy for words and it’s keeping me from fully getting into it. There is still a bit of a disconnect between what the tropes of the genre are and what I actually want them to be I guess. That said, I have found that I really love some new bands like Frozen Souls, Blood Incantation, and Power Trip (who I guess are considered more Thrash than Death, but that feels like an unnecessary distinction to me).
I think what I have realized is that, if things get TOO technical (Nile) or TOO proggy (Opeth) or TOO uh self consciously “death metal*” (Gate Creeper) I nope out. But if the band is song writing first and “look at me” second I’m pretty much along for whatever weird crap you want to do and I have gotten into some weird crap that back when I last posted this thread I never would have expected. For example Necrot is maybe my favorite of the “new wave of old school death metal” bands. That album I linked in particular just kills. Also, for similar reasons I’ve really come to appreciate Thrash, especially non big 4 Thrash that is being made now and stuff from Germany. Celtic Frost, and Sodom get played a lot as does Power Trip, Vektor, and oh, Sepeltura. I listen to them a lot, but frequently also forget to mention them. They are sort of their own thing I guess.
Anyway, that’s where I am. I’m surprised Doom and Black metal didn’t stick as much as Death and Thrash. I’m sort of surprised as how much I like some melodeath too (Black Daliah Murder, Dark Tranquility). And I’m genuinely still finding new stuff all the time. There is cool stuff happening and decades of music I missed and still haven’t explored. So, thanks! I appreciate the thread participants here all the time and don’t often get to say that.
That said, the music I listen to most these days still sounds mostly like this
*unless self consciously death metal is sort of the point. I [think this from undeath is pretty great actually.] (Undeath - It's Time...to Rise From The Grave full album - YouTube)